0:02

For years, I went to a psychotherapist

0:05

just three doors down from a funeral

0:07

parlor. I gotta tell you,

0:09

passing by mourners on my way to therapy

0:12

really put me in the right headspace too, you

0:15

know, think about what I wanted my own life

0:17

to add up to. I highly

0:19

recommend choosing a psychotherapist

0:21

with an office next to a funeral parlor.

0:26

Now let's travel back in time nearly

0:28

a century ago to Manhattan's

0:30

Upper West Side. It's

0:33

a sweltering late summer day,

0:35

and we're standing in front of the Frank E. Campbell

0:38

Funeral Chapel, then located

0:40

at Broadway and sixty Street.

0:43

Over the next hundred years, Campbell's

0:45

will serve as the funeral home for legends

0:47

from Judy Garland to Jackie

0:50

Oh to the notorious b I. G.

0:53

But they won't draw the crowds seen

0:55

on Tuesday August

0:59

when the sidewalks are overflowing

1:01

with a crowd of some thirty thousand

1:04

warners. They've

1:07

all gathered here to catch a final

1:09

glimpse of a fallen movie

1:12

star. Arguably

1:16

the first male sex symbol of

1:18

the silver screen. He

1:20

was in great physical shape, and

1:23

you see those rippling muscles

1:25

in his arms. I

1:27

mean, I don't know if you've ever seen the

1:29

videos of him doing his workout

1:32

while he's wearing pretty much just

1:35

skivvy. Okay, I'll

1:38

check those out. I haven't seen those. I

1:40

need to see that he was labeled

1:42

the Great Lover, or even more

1:45

indelibly, the

1:48

Latin Lover. He would

1:50

hold you in his arms

1:53

if you were a beautiful woman, and

1:55

kiss you passionately and brutally.

2:01

Can somebody turn down the thermostat and here

2:03

is I'm feeling hot? No

2:06

one burned up the screen like Rudolph

2:09

Valentino, driving women across

2:11

the planet wild in a way that

2:14

no one had before him, enough

2:16

to leave a permanent mark in the world

2:18

that he suddenly left behind. At the

2:20

tender age of thirty one. Along

2:26

Broadway, a procession of dark

2:28

cars carries Valentino's

2:30

rose covered, bronze and silver

2:32

coffin to the chapel. The

2:35

crowd grows unruly, a scene

2:37

recreated in the film

2:40

Valentino. Rain

2:46

is falling, but instead of cooling

2:48

things off, the crowd explodes

2:50

into a riot. The mourners

2:53

become a mob, push punching,

2:56

fighting their way to get into the funeral parlor.

3:00

The surgeon. Crowd pushes a line of policemen,

3:02

causing the windows of the chapel to shatter.

3:06

Mounted police officers try to quell

3:08

the riot, which lasts for hours.

3:11

Over a hundred are hurt. An

3:14

improvised emergency room is set

3:16

up inside the funeral chapel, with the

3:19

doctors and nurses ministering to the

3:21

many injured. The streets

3:23

are covered in debris. A

3:26

young woman drenched from head to toe

3:28

ambles in her stockinged feet, weeping.

3:31

I must see him, I must

3:33

see him. But

3:35

how did we get here? How

3:39

did Rudolph Valentino reach such

3:41

dizzy heights? Why

3:43

all of this howling, hysterical

3:45

sorrow? And what exactly

3:48

is a Latin lover? He's a

3:50

handsome Latin with an accent. He's

3:53

in the living in.

3:57

Of course, there would be many rivals for valen

4:00

Tino's Latin lover Crown. I

4:03

was ruined by Raymond Navarrow. Raymond

4:05

Navarro the movie star will

4:08

tell their stories and talk to Latin

4:10

lover Scion Lorenzo Lamas

4:13

Dad was the original Latin

4:15

dragon. He was the original lothario

4:18

of fame and notoriety,

4:20

and his romances

4:22

are legendary. Did you tell me

4:24

something, Fernando, you have a terrible

4:26

reputation. Do you still

4:28

have a lot of fooling around to do? And

4:30

we'll tell you how the Latin Lover vanished

4:33

from Hollywood just as suddenly

4:35

as he had appeared. I'm in a night.

4:39

No fine man is allowed to play

4:41

a leading role, like if we have an operation

4:44

of someone from

4:46

CBS Sunday morning and I heart

4:49

I'm Morocca and this is

4:51

mobituaries this

4:58

moment dolf Valentino,

5:01

Ramon Navarro and a Tale

5:04

of Two Lamas. October

5:06

eighth, the

5:09

Death of the Latin Lover. World

5:21

War One ended in and

5:24

its conclusion ushered in the beginning

5:26

of the sexual Revolution. Wait

5:32

a minute, the sexual revolution

5:35

that happened in the nineteen sixties, didn't

5:37

it well, There actually was

5:39

an earlier sexual revolution in

5:41

the nineteen twenties. Out

5:44

of the devastation of World War One emerged

5:47

a new American woman with a new

5:49

sense of sexual freedom, a

5:51

modern woman. Women had finally

5:54

won the right to vote, and we're joining the workforce

5:56

in unprecedented numbers. The

5:59

Great War had made American women more

6:01

aware of the world at large, and

6:04

these women were going to the movies.

6:06

Approximately eighty three percent

6:08

of movie goers were women. Enter

6:11

Rudolph Valentino, our first

6:13

Latin lover of the silver screen.

6:18

Valentino was born Rodolfo Pietro

6:21

Filiberto Raphaele Googliemi

6:24

on May six in

6:26

the province of Toronto in southern Italy.

6:29

What was the appeal of Valentino?

6:33

Well, he was handsome, he

6:35

was elegant. He

6:38

was a dynamite dancer.

6:41

I mean, he was a professional dancer

6:44

before he became an actor. I'm

6:47

talking to Emily wardis Lder, author

6:49

of Dark Lover, The Life and Death of

6:51

Rudolph Valentino. Try

6:54

to ignore the noise in the background. And

6:56

if you've seen him dance on screen,

6:59

he was so graceful

7:01

and dynamic as a performer.

7:05

Emily, are you sorry? Are you cooking

7:07

there? My husband is getting ready

7:09

for his lunch. What is he What is

7:11

he making? Salad? Okay?

7:14

Al right? Could he just be a little quieter with the tongs.

7:19

The Italian economy collapsed after

7:22

World War One, and Rodolfo

7:24

emigrated alone to America, arriving

7:26

at Ellis Island at the age of eighteen.

7:32

He first made his living as what was known

7:35

as a taxi dancer. He

7:37

was doing that pretty much from the time

7:39

he was right off the boat in New York.

7:43

Taxi dancers worked in dance halls,

7:45

charging patrons a dime for a dance,

7:47

a profession immortalized by the Rogers

7:50

and Hart song ten cents a dance,

7:53

and was that His primary ambition

7:55

was that sort of the end goal to be a

7:57

dancer, not his empty

8:00

at all. He wanted respect,

8:04

but working as a taxi dancer was seen

8:06

a sort of jigglo adjacent.

8:09

That's not high prestige

8:12

all that you need. Come

8:16

on. At

8:22

twenty three, Rodolpho headed to Hollywood

8:25

and adopted the much more marquis friendly

8:27

name Rudolph Valentino. He

8:30

played bit parts in various B movies,

8:33

often his Criminals and Low Lifes, until

8:36

he was discovered by June Mathis,

8:38

one of the most successful women in

8:40

early Hollywood. She was a

8:43

power in her own right. I

8:45

think most people would be surprised

8:47

at the power that several

8:50

women had in Hollywood during the silent

8:52

film era. Women were

8:55

a force in the era of silent

8:57

films. They only lost

9:00

hour later, and they did

9:02

of course. Matthis was a screenwriter

9:05

and producer, ultimately being credited

9:07

on more than one films,

9:10

and she picked him out

9:12

and she gets the credit for

9:14

being the person who discovered law Valentino.

9:17

Oh, if you're intrigued by unsung powerful

9:20

women in Hollywood's earliest days, check

9:22

out our season one episode Forgotten

9:24

Forerunners, which features silent

9:27

film trailblazer Lois Webber. Okay,

9:29

so there are no taped interviews of June

9:32

Mathis, but there's this ABC

9:34

made for TV movie from five

9:37

called The Legend of Valentino,

9:39

and it stars the incomparable Suzanne

9:42

Plachette as June Mathis.

9:44

Here she is arguing with Metro Studio

9:47

executives over whether or not to cast

9:49

Valentino in her next big movie.

9:52

Photographs like a foreigner. Foreigners have to

9:54

play heavies. American women won't trust

9:56

them. They trust American man

10:00

read them, don't they? Who was talking about marriage? I'm

10:02

talking about sex, Sam.

10:05

This is nineteen twenty. It

10:07

would just be through a world war. Women

10:09

are wearing one piece bathing suits, they're

10:11

drinking bathtub gin, they're dancing the black

10:13

bottom. And the only

10:16

thing that hasn't changed is the screen. I

10:18

mean, we are still pretending it's sex

10:20

was invented by Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.

10:22

Now, why can't we be closer to reality?

10:25

June Mathis had seen Valentino

10:27

dance. She knew he had

10:30

it. I mean, women aboard

10:32

their restless They're tired of being

10:34

protected and American men are dull.

10:37

Now, by the early nineteen twenties, Americans

10:39

had been going to the movies for more than a

10:41

decade, but

10:43

the typical leading man of the day was

10:46

square jawed all American, unassailably

10:49

moral. Think that the swashbuckling

10:51

Douglas Fairbanks, very

10:54

Protestant, hair parted,

10:57

white shirt suit. We're

11:00

talking menace here, We're talking

11:02

a gentleman. A gentleman.

11:05

Was he demonstrative with

11:07

women? There wasn't much heat, but

11:10

Douglas Fairbanks was certainly very

11:12

exciting. Not as a lover

11:14

on screen. It was an athlete,

11:17

not such a good kisser. But

11:21

for decades Italian immigrants

11:23

had been smeared in newspapers as

11:26

gangsters, which is also the only

11:28

way they showed up in movies. The

11:30

Emergency Quota Act codified

11:34

this bigotry by drastically

11:36

limiting the number of people coming in from

11:38

southern and Eastern Europe, there

11:40

was a special prejudice against

11:43

Italian immigrants. They

11:45

were just one step above

11:48

being black in the eyes

11:51

of filmmakers and society at

11:53

large white audiences.

11:57

But June math Is envisioned an alternative.

12:00

Bear in mind this was a full century

12:02

before me too. I mean, if we're going

12:04

to buy a dream, we're gonna buy the one about

12:06

the handsome farn who drags it into his bed

12:08

against our will. You'd like

12:11

that. I love that scene,

12:13

and so would your wife. Mathis

12:15

got her way and cast Valentino

12:18

in her film The

12:20

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,

12:23

and one scene in that film came to

12:25

define Valentino for his entire

12:27

career. The tango scene.

12:32

Well, it starts with menace, which

12:36

used to be and maybe still is,

12:38

considered sexy. Early

12:41

on in the Silent film, Valentino's

12:43

character Julio is drinking in

12:45

a crowded, divy Argentine bar,

12:48

wearing a gaucho outfit, wide

12:50

flat brimmed hat with tassels and a

12:52

chin strap, buttoned up blousy

12:55

shirt. A man and woman are

12:57

dancing a jaunty tango. Valentino's

13:00

drives up and taps the man on the shoulder. Never

13:03

removing his lit cigarette, he asks

13:05

to cut in. Valentino exchanges

13:07

a smile and wink with the saucy Senorita.

13:11

The man, however, refuses. Valentino's

13:14

eyes widened with fury. He then

13:16

throws the man aside and beats him. Then

13:19

he breaks in and grabs

13:21

the woman quite brutally,

13:24

and then tangles off with her. So

13:27

there is Mannas

13:29

about to knock you out if you don't

13:32

hand over the woman. And that was

13:34

sexy. Oh

13:36

yes, okay,

13:42

these movies have not aged well, but

13:44

Valentino's on screen persona was

13:46

an exotic fantasy that

13:49

women of the era bought into in a

13:51

big way. The famous

13:53

tango scene only lasted a total

13:55

of four minutes, but it had a

13:57

seismic impact. Is this

14:00

the scene that really makes him a superstar

14:03

in my opinion? Yes,

14:05

But the Sheik took

14:07

over and became better

14:10

known, and that was a real craze.

14:14

Valentino's first leading man role

14:17

came that same year in The

14:19

Chic, the movie adaptation of

14:21

the steamy, hugely popular

14:23

romance novel The Chic, which

14:26

was basically the Fifty Shades of Gray of

14:28

its day. This was the racy

14:30

debut of thirty nine year old British

14:32

novelist E. M. Hull a k a

14:35

Edith maud Hull. The book

14:37

inspired a chart topping hit called

14:39

The Chic of Araby. Crowds

14:42

went absolutely wild for Valentino

14:45

as a love struck but brutal Arab

14:47

chic who melts the heart of a captive

14:50

modern woman. Chic mania

14:52

swept the world. Oh and

14:54

I must see the house where Rudolph

14:56

Valentino lived. Oh, I'll

14:59

never forget him in the sheet.

15:02

I'm that her

15:07

love. It

15:11

also inspired a string of chic rip

15:13

off movies, and it continued

15:16

to press the tension between sex

15:18

and violence. That's an element in

15:20

some fantasy romance attention

15:23

that Valentino would exploit in roll

15:25

after role. And yet now

15:28

you also wrote about a vulnerable,

15:31

wounded quality that

15:33

Valentino had. He has

15:35

that in life, and he has it on the screen

15:37

too. Yes, I think it's

15:39

about its own emotional

15:42

availability and vulnerability.

15:45

You could see it in his face. That

15:50

softer side was an essential part

15:52

of his appeal. He would kiss the back

15:54

of women's hands, he would bow flourishes

15:57

of chivalry that American women weren't

15:59

used to seeing in American men, his

16:02

courtesy, his focus, his

16:04

intensity. He would make

16:07

you feel like you were the only

16:09

woman in the world while he

16:11

was kissing you anyhow, and

16:14

this gets to the heart of what made

16:16

Valentino so different from the leading

16:18

men who came before. He put

16:20

the woman front and sent her very

16:23

important. The woman is

16:26

central. It's all about

16:29

adoring the woman, and

16:32

women adored him right back, sneaking

16:34

onto trains, hiding in bathrooms

16:37

just for a chance to get close to him.

16:39

One Boston headline read ten

16:42

girls mob World's greatest

16:44

kisser. Women of all ages

16:49

created the matinee idol

16:52

is What is Bill doing back there? Is he pounding?

16:55

Veal was pounding? Uh? Tell

16:58

me the truth? Is all this talk about Valentino

17:01

making him jealous? No, he wants

17:03

his lunch, but

17:06

out of the public eye. Rudy was

17:09

unlucky in love and bad with

17:11

money. He endured two unhappy

17:13

marriages and made poor business

17:15

decisions. Leapfrogging

17:18

from studio to studio. Valentino

17:20

burned bridges and lost allies

17:22

and friends in the process, including

17:25

his first champion. June Mathis

17:27

newspaper soon took to mocking the star

17:30

as Vassilino because of his slicked

17:32

back hair. Now, we've talked

17:34

plenty about how women reacted to Valentino.

17:37

Indeed, Valentino was a man

17:39

made by women. But how did

17:41

most American men react to him

17:45

with suspicion? Hey,

17:47

he was a foreigner. He didn't

17:50

have exactly white complexion.

17:53

He had all of complexion, which

17:55

made him suspect. And see

17:59

the wise girl friend mother liked

18:01

him too much, so that was a threat.

18:04

Valentino knew that he was beautiful.

18:07

He dressed to thrill. He wore

18:09

jewelry spats over his shoes,

18:12

lemon yellow gloves with his impeccably

18:14

tailored suits. Think David

18:16

Bowie meets Harry Styles. Enter

18:19

the infamous pink powder puff

18:21

attack. That

18:24

was such a smear. That was

18:26

a smear job, but it got

18:28

a lot of press, the pink powder

18:31

puff attack. They attacked

18:33

his masculinity totally

18:36

without basis. In July, in

18:40

anonymous Chicago Tribune editorial

18:42

alleged that the city's new Aragon

18:45

ballroom had installed a pink

18:47

powder puff vending machine in the men's

18:49

washroom, encouraging men to

18:51

powder their noses. And it's

18:54

squarely blamed Valentino

18:56

without saying it. The editorial accused

18:59

Valentino of being gay.

19:02

Valentino challenged the anonymous

19:04

author, first to a duel of honor

19:06

and then to a boxing match, but before

19:09

anonymous could come forward it

19:11

was too late. Complaining

19:14

of terrible abdominal pains, Valentino

19:17

was given an emergency double operation

19:19

for acute appendicitis and perforated

19:22

gastric ulcers. The resulting

19:24

sepsis took his life. After

19:26

a week that

19:34

will, Valentino

19:39

died at twelve ten pm on Monday

19:41

August. This

19:45

tribute song was written by Vernon

19:47

Dolhart. Just ten days

19:49

after Valentino perished. The

19:52

Guardian newspaper wrote, no

19:54

monarch or war hero ever aroused

19:57

more sympathetic public interest anywhere

20:00

than Valentino during the illness,

20:02

which ended fatally. Today,

20:05

the press was flooded with reports

20:07

of fainting women and suicide attempts.

20:10

Twenty seven year old actress Peggy Scott

20:13

took her life in London by poison.

20:15

Twenty year old Angelina Celestina,

20:18

mother of two, took poison and

20:20

shot herself in the bowery. She

20:22

was rescued and briefly institutionalized.

20:26

Valentino received two separate

20:28

funerals the first in New York with

20:30

its riots and mayhem. Then

20:32

his body was transported cross country

20:35

via railroad to California.

20:37

At several stops, love struck fans

20:40

lay down on the tracks, delaying

20:42

the trains progress to Valentino's

20:44

final resting place in Hollywood.

20:49

Well, nobody in this country

20:51

had seen anything like it since

20:53

the death of Abraham Lincoln, though

20:55

that is really something else, you

20:58

know, when Lincoln does, his

21:00

body was carried in

21:02

a famous train ride, and

21:06

people gathered along

21:08

the tracks in morning

21:10

and tribute. And the same thing happened

21:13

when Valentino died. The

21:15

more sensationalized reactions to

21:17

Valentino's to death became part of the

21:19

national consciousness for decades

21:21

afterwards, as evidenced by

21:24

this brief side in Billy Wilder's

21:26

comedy Some Like It Hot. How

21:28

about Roseberry Short She slashed the

21:30

wrist when Valentino, Well, we might as well

21:32

all slash our risk unless we round up two games.

21:37

Valentino is buried next to June

21:40

Mathis, who, out of compassion,

21:42

allowed Valentino to be entuned in her

21:44

crypt at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

21:46

His estate couldn't afford to bury him

21:49

there. They rest side by side

21:53

Valentine,

21:55

but way

21:59

up, there's

22:04

on you story. Within

22:13

three years of his death, silent movies

22:16

were officially finished. Would Valentino

22:18

have made it in talkies, Well,

22:21

here's a rare recording of him singing

22:23

let's have a quick listen and wonder

22:25

what might have been. But

22:43

it was the singing voice of our next

22:45

Latin lover which would allow him

22:47

to make the jump to talkies. Night.

23:08

Ramon name

23:11

Samaniego Jose

23:14

Ramon Hill Samaniego was born

23:17

on February six Inturango,

23:20

Mexico. His large family

23:22

was wealthy and influential and

23:25

lost everything in the Mexican Revolution.

23:28

Seventeen year old Jose Ramon moved

23:31

to Los Angeles, where he supported

23:33

his family by working as a bus

23:35

boy, a nude model, and a movie

23:38

extra. He dreamed of singing

23:40

opera, and, just as Valentino

23:42

had, Samanego simplified

23:45

his name to Ramon

23:47

Navarro, although it was much more

23:49

frequently pronounced Ramon Navarro.

23:53

Superstardom came with the silent

23:56

version of Ben Her. Now,

23:59

this was thirty four years before Charlton

24:01

Heston's Panavision extravaganza

24:04

Ben Her, I Tell You the

24:06

day room falls, there will be a shout

24:08

of freedom such as the world has never heard

24:10

before. But

24:13

the earlier version was just as

24:15

epic, the most expensive movie

24:18

of its time, and it was written

24:20

by none other than June Mathis.

24:22

Mathis desperately wanted Valentino

24:25

for the title role, but Valentino

24:27

was at the time on the ounce with the studio.

24:30

Navarro got the lead. The

24:33

world had a new Latin lover, the

24:35

first Mexican actor to make it

24:38

in Hollywood. Navarro

24:40

could dance, and he could act. He

24:42

was funny, and this was key to

24:44

his success in talkies. He could

24:47

sing, I should like to hear

24:49

you sing. That's

24:52

easy. I think I looked

24:54

anywhere without any good. Here

24:57

he is singing the pagan love song from

25:00

the nine Polynesian romance

25:02

The Pagan Nice.

25:16

And here he is as a romantic and reckless

25:18

Napoleonic French officer in Devil

25:20

May Care. And

25:32

here he is crooning alongside fledgling

25:34

movie soprano and future star Jeanette

25:37

McDonald in n GM's The Cat

25:39

and the Fiddle. Okay,

25:50

so maybe that pigeon like warbling

25:52

is not to our current tastes, But

25:55

save your bread crumbs. Navarro's

25:57

operetta style of singing was all

25:59

the rage at the time. I'm Navarro

26:01

had only one accent for all of his

26:03

speaking roles. Whether he was playing an

26:05

Egyptian, Belgian or Austrian,

26:07

he always spoke with his natural, lilting

26:10

Mexican accent. Here

26:12

he is as a Russian. Just go with

26:14

it, wooing the world weary Swedish

26:17

screen siren Greta Garbo

26:19

in Mata Hari's a strange

26:21

boy who loves you, William,

26:24

I love you as when a door's sacred

26:26

things. Let's sink of things.

26:29

God, country, honor you

26:33

now. Navarro was not the sex god

26:35

that Valentino evoked on screen. He

26:37

was short, with a smallish mouth,

26:41

and while he was definitely athletic, he

26:44

was also slightly pudgy.

26:47

Navarro's seduction technique, even

26:50

in the films where he played a cad, was

26:54

playful, naughty, innocent,

26:57

Oh you would go, that would

27:00

do you little? In

27:04

a word, Ramon Navarro was cute,

27:07

a lovable, love struck scamp,

27:10

and an uninhibited romantic with

27:12

loads of charm. I lost my career

27:14

today, but I don't care. I'm

27:16

happy today. I found the most glorious

27:19

girl in the whole world. Nothing

27:21

about Navarro spoke of menace or

27:23

danger. Today I found

27:26

love. Ironically,

27:30

Navarro reached his peak and popularity

27:32

at a time when prejudice towards Mexican

27:34

immigrants had become extremely common.

27:37

Mexicans had been welcomed as cheap labor

27:39

to the US, but at the same time

27:42

they were resented, and Hollywood's

27:44

depictions of handlebarred bandidos

27:46

in westerns were at least partially

27:48

to blame. Whether Valentino

27:50

and Navarro were sensations because

27:53

or in spite of being immigrants is

27:55

hard to say, but the studios

27:57

consciously avoided casting either

28:00

of them as their native nationalities.

28:02

To audiences, they were simply acceptably

28:05

exotic celebrities. Now,

28:07

until four Novarro

28:10

was one of the world's biggest stars,

28:12

one of the few to straddle silent films

28:15

and talkies. Then two

28:17

things happened. Hollywood

28:20

turned toward more stoic, traditionally

28:22

manly man like Clark Cable

28:25

and Gary Cooper for its romantic

28:27

male leads that was

28:29

not Navarro. At the same time,

28:32

the old fashioned operettas that

28:34

had made Navarro so popular fell

28:36

out of fashion. In favor of newer

28:39

sounding musicals, led by the likes

28:41

of fred As Stair. I'm

28:45

longing to be in chains

28:53

and that's with me. One

28:56

final MGM musical, The Night

28:58

Is Young, in cemented

29:01

the end for Navarro with

29:05

us and apple Struds.

29:08

I've ordered apple Strudo without

29:12

students. Love

29:15

you listen. I happen

29:17

to love both veener Schnitzel and apple

29:19

Strudel, But this movie gave me indigestion.

29:22

It tanked with both critics and audiences,

29:26

and m GM fired Navarro. Navarro

29:29

had had a good run, make that a great run.

29:32

He lived comfortably over the next few decades,

29:34

even helping to take care of his many siblings

29:36

and their families, having smartly

29:39

invested his money in real estate. Oh,

29:41

I feel very fortunate because I

29:43

know people that have certainly much more

29:45

intelligence than I had, an intelligence and

29:49

ability, and yet I'd be fortunate

29:51

in the investing my money rightly. Ramon

29:56

Navarro's legacy would likely be his

29:59

very real early stardom

30:01

if not for the way he died at

30:03

the age of sixty nine. Navarro was

30:06

murdered in his Hollywood home on

30:08

October by

30:10

two male hustlers. The

30:13

details are lurid, and we're

30:15

not going to get into them here, but

30:17

the general circumstances of his death

30:19

and the trial that followed revealed

30:22

to the world what Hollywood insiders had

30:24

long known. Navarro was

30:26

gay. As

30:29

a young star, he had refused to give

30:31

into studio pressure to marry a woman.

30:34

In his early days, he'd had a few relationships,

30:37

but as he grew older, biographer Andre

30:39

Suarez beliefs Navarro had

30:41

become less self accepting and

30:43

found it harder to reconcile his Catholic

30:46

faith with his sexuality. He

30:48

drank to excess, and he paid for

30:50

sex. When he eventually lost

30:53

his driver's license, navarro secretary

30:55

would drive him to church. If Navarro

30:58

noticed a handsome young man walking the sidewalk,

31:00

he would quickly cross himself. At

31:03

the trial of his murderers, the

31:05

defense attorney victim blamed,

31:08

saying contemptuously to the jury,

31:10

back in the days of Valentino, this

31:12

man who set female hearts of flutter

31:15

was nothing but a queer. Navarro,

31:18

he argued, had invited this upon himself.

31:22

Sadly in that

31:24

was a compelling argument. Neither

31:26

murderer served more than nine years

31:28

for this crime. Posthumously,

31:32

Navarro's name fell further into

31:34

disgrace thanks to Hollywood Babylon.

31:37

Hollywood Babylon is a book by

31:39

a man named Kenneth Anger, and

31:42

that's pretty much where the facts end. It's

31:44

attacking and tasteless compilation

31:46

of scandals and hearsay about

31:49

the very first movie stars, and

31:51

it was a best seller. The most infamous

31:53

edition in included

31:56

gruesome graphic photos of celebrity

31:58

deaths we its litany

32:00

of lies. Hollywood Babylon ensured

32:03

that Navarro's death would overshadow

32:06

his life.

32:11

When the fabulous MGM retrospectives

32:13

That's Entertainment and its sequel

32:16

were released in the nineteen seventies, they

32:18

included dozens of clips from Hollywood's

32:20

earliest musicals. Navarro

32:23

was conspicuously absent at

32:26

that time. It may have been impossible to honor

32:29

him properly without invoking his

32:31

recent troubling demise. And

32:33

that's a big shame. Tears

32:36

to remembering Ramon Navarro as

32:38

he was in his Latin Lover Heyday with

32:42

that wonderful warble up

32:59

next, Lat Lover's invade television,

33:02

just before their last big hurrah on

33:04

the silver screen. You know, Ricky

33:07

another Rudolph Valentino, Ricky

33:10

Ricky ricking

33:13

me. That's who the

33:28

studio just had to go over and have my picture

33:30

taken with Ricky Ricardo, whoever

33:33

he is? Haven't you

33:35

mad? You? He's a handsome

33:37

Latin with an accent. He's the

33:39

end the living en.

33:44

By the nineteen fifties, the whole

33:46

idea of the Latin lover had become

33:48

something of a punch line on TV. Ricardo

33:52

Alberto Fernando Ricardo, I

33:55

love Lucy's Ricky Ricardo has

33:58

played by Desi Arnaz, is

34:00

hardly dangerous. This Latin

34:02

lover was safely domesticated.

34:05

What a dream of situation. And I

34:07

bet you know a million girls? Where's your address

34:09

book? I burned it.

34:13

I hadn't been in this country very long, and Lucy

34:16

said it was part of the American marriage ceremony.

34:21

Over on the big screen. The Latin

34:23

lover vehicles of the period were

34:26

gloriously cheeseball. Here's

34:28

Mexican Heartthrob Ricardo Montalban

34:31

teaching some poor sap his own

34:33

seduction technique. In Neptune's

34:37

Daughter, you must say to her, why

34:42

do I have to speak Spanish? Because it's a language

34:45

of love? Women can resist it. Not

34:47

surprisingly, Montaban didn't

34:50

like being typecast, as he later

34:52

recalled in a CBS interview, but

34:54

I didn't know what it meant, you see Latin love

34:57

it. I it meant a

34:59

man, I guess I going into Hollywood with

35:01

slick hair, Natalie

35:04

dressed and kissing ladies hands,

35:06

you know. And it was a caricature, so

35:08

I I kind of resented it. There were vapid

35:10

roles. Perhaps the most successful

35:13

of the Latin lovers of this period, and

35:15

one of the last, was dapper

35:17

Debonair Fernando Lamas.

35:20

Aren't you rather forgetting yourself? Maybe

35:24

I always forget myself when I'm

35:26

near a beautiful rule. Neither

35:28

dangerous like Valentino nor

35:30

boyish like Navarro, Lamas

35:33

was instead a smooth operator.

35:36

Come to my home tomorrow and I

35:38

will show you the real Gord of California, the

35:41

sweet smelling hay and plums,

35:43

and the grapes, and the prod cattle and the bigs.

35:47

Do you like pigs, lady? Normally that's

35:50

a few. At the height of his popularity,

35:53

Fernando married movie star and businesswoman

35:56

are Lean Tall, a Minnesotan

35:58

of Norwegian descent, and the

36:01

couple were expecting a child when

36:03

they spoke to Edward R. Murrow on person

36:05

to person, have you picked a name for

36:07

the baby and not? Not yet.

36:10

We have in mind a couple of names.

36:12

But he's not quite easy, isn't

36:15

No. It's not easy to see both my father and for not

36:17

to want a boy. So we've been concentrating only

36:20

on boys names, right. You see, he's

36:22

got to go with the name Lamas, and

36:24

I don't think that, for example, Sam Lamas

36:26

would really go out together. You know, they

36:28

did not name their son Sam.

36:31

As much as I was stereotyped as a jock,

36:33

Dad was stereotyped as a

36:35

Latin lover. That's actor

36:38

and son of Fernando Lorenzo

36:40

Lamas. And he told me

36:43

it's good to be stereotyped and have steady

36:45

work, then to not be stereotyped

36:47

and go without having the phone ring for months

36:50

at a time. Lorenzo

36:52

would go on to have his own movie and TV

36:55

career. I first came

36:57

to know him for his work on the nighttime soap

37:00

Falcon Crest. You created

37:02

Falcon Crest in your own image, Grandmother,

37:04

My mother and I are the way we are because of you and if

37:07

I've turned against you, it's your own fault. You

37:09

get out of my sight.

37:13

I really think the Latin lover was introduced

37:16

to the American audience to give people

37:18

a chance to look at an emotional

37:21

man, a man that is

37:23

not afraid to show his feelings.

37:26

Fernando Lamas was discovered

37:28

in his native Argentina by an MGM

37:31

talent scout. He was of a group

37:34

of people like ss A Ramaron, Ricardo

37:37

montal Bond that were brought to the

37:39

studio system to play

37:41

that kind of that spoiler,

37:43

the Latin lover that comes into the storyline

37:46

and kind of breaks up the couple, and

37:48

they would play the continental swave, you know,

37:50

sophisticated man about town. How

37:52

many may have told you that you're the most

37:55

beautiful girl they have ever seen. Fernando

37:58

took to the Latin lover role on screen

38:01

and off movie Star and Champions

38:03

Swimmer. Esther Williams would become

38:06

his fourth wife. She later

38:08

recalled the first time they met, tell

38:10

me something, Fernando, you have a terrible

38:13

reputation. Do

38:15

you still have a lot of fooling around to do? And

38:18

he said, such an honest question deserves

38:21

an out to answer. He says, I'm afraid I do,

38:23

and I said, you kill me. I

38:25

said goodbye to him and I was saw him for

38:27

eight years. By the late fifties,

38:30

Fernando was eager to leave the

38:32

onscreen part of the role behind.

38:34

I'm very happy to say that I'm walking away

38:37

from one role that I seem to

38:39

be stuck with in quite

38:41

another of my pictures in Hollywood. That's what I

38:43

called the Latin lover type of a role,

38:45

which is the one dimensional you know

38:47

only it calls for a starting one hand, a

38:49

blonde dame on the other, and the horse waiting

38:51

outside that's all black

38:54

hair and long pink. And

38:56

indeed, by the end of the decade, the

38:59

Latin lover had largely banished

39:01

from the big screen. But, much

39:03

to the dismay of Lamas, this

39:06

didn't lead to better opportunities. As

39:08

he later explained to Johnny Carson,

39:11

I'm in a nine sixty. No

39:14

foreign man is allowed to play a leading

39:16

role. Like if we had an operation of

39:18

something. You didn't

39:21

know that you have an operations, You're

39:23

gonna may love an Marsa. Now you play

39:25

the friend of the leading man, who

39:27

is some dumb guy from Topeka

39:30

or oh, you'll

39:32

play the heavy. The Latin lover

39:34

was being replaced by the Latin

39:37

criminal, all too often the

39:39

urban gang member by

39:41

Ella Nasa collection

39:43

time. Okay, girl, come on come,

39:46

I'm gonna get the money ready. This man

39:48

needs some great Former

39:50

movie star Latin lovers had

39:52

to turn elsewhere for work. By

39:54

your guests, I am Mr Rourke, your

39:56

host. Welcome to Fantasy

39:59

Island. Ricardo Montauban

40:01

became the star of TV's Fantasy

40:03

Island, where I would watch him every

40:06

Saturday night. Smiles,

40:08

everyone smiles. No

40:13

longer cast as a romantic lead,

40:16

he was also during commercial breaks

40:18

romancing car seats,

40:22

venue small prison. Here

40:24

is the warm, thickly cushion contour

40:27

seats available even in Fine

40:29

Corinthiander. By

40:31

the way, fine Corinthian leather is

40:33

a marketing term, not any actual

40:35

type of leather. As for Fernando Lamas,

40:38

he turned to directing for television.

40:41

He directed Lorenzo in several episodes

40:43

of Falcon Crest. Fernando's

40:46

name and fame slowly faded

40:48

until Pop Culture twice turned

40:51

the spotlight back on him.

40:53

It's time now for Fernando's

40:56

bideaway. Find

41:00

that yours, my

41:02

friends, I'm so happy to be at tonight. In

41:05

the recurring Saturday Night Live segment

41:07

Fernando's Hideaway, Billy

41:09

Crystal parodied the Elder Lamas

41:12

inspired says Lorenzo buy

41:14

an appearance Fernando had made on The

41:16

Tonight Show, and Billy was watching

41:19

Dad the way he was on Johnny Carson, and Dad

41:21

came in and appeared, and he had a little bit of

41:23

a cult. Johnny said, So for

41:25

I understand you're a little under the weather tonight,

41:28

because yes, Johnny and Lutheran to the weather,

41:30

not not, you know, feeling to

41:33

moral us. But it's always

41:35

better to look good than to feel good, right,

41:38

I would rather look good than to feel good. You know

41:40

what I'm saying to your dolling mama.

41:43

You look thank

41:47

you, but you look pretty good yourself.

41:49

I'm rushing inside my temperature. Dad

41:52

loved it because Billy was introducing my father

41:54

to an audience of people that didn't know who he was.

41:57

By the way, there really was a Fernando's

41:59

Hie to way in that appearance on Person

42:02

to Person. Back in nineteen fifty seven, Fernando

42:04

led Edward R. Murrow on a tour through

42:07

his Manhattan town house and to

42:09

his man cave. This is the

42:12

room where you got away from it all? Is that? That's why?

42:14

Definitely, you know, I think a man who hasn't what has

42:16

to be along with himself. But what's

42:18

the sign just beside you? There is the sign

42:21

here says exactly Fernando's high

42:23

The way is the picture of a bullfight? Is

42:25

it? Fernando Lamas died

42:27

in but another

42:30

tribute of a sort came posthumously

42:33

in a popular beer campaign in two

42:35

thousand six. In the First

42:37

Life, he was himself. If

42:41

opportunity knocks and he's not home,

42:44

opportunity wings. He

42:47

gave his father the talk. He

42:51

is the most Interesting man

42:53

in the world. Character

42:55

actor Jonathan Goldsmith, a

42:58

good friend to Fernando's audition and

43:00

for a commercial for Doseki Spear and

43:03

the character that Dosekis was looking for

43:06

was some sort of Latin lover

43:08

type. Goldsmith, a self described

43:11

Jewish guy from the Bronx, summoned

43:13

the spirit of his beloved lost

43:16

friend and the most Interesting Man in the World

43:18

was basically from Jonathan's

43:20

memory of the times that he spent with Dad.

43:23

Running in place will never get you the

43:25

same results as running

43:27

from Claya Fernando

43:31

Lamas was never entirely able

43:33

to shake the Latin lover label. His

43:36

New York Times obituary David October

43:39

two starts off, Fernando

43:43

Lamas, the silver haired star

43:45

of numerous Latin Lover movies,

43:48

died today of cancer. He was

43:50

sixty seven years old. There

44:00

when you realize that Valentino he

44:04

invented the leading men, and he came

44:06

on and he invented the thing, and he dressed himself

44:08

funny, and Buddy caught on, and

44:11

then there were a lot of funnis that followed.

44:14

We've left the Latin lover behind

44:16

us, and as with most all

44:18

stereotypes, that's for the best.

44:22

But let's also acknowledge that the Latin

44:24

Lover allowed foreigners to be

44:26

leading men for the first time. And

44:28

while it's rare to see someone marketed

44:31

as a Latin lover today,

44:33

some of his better aspects have

44:35

been absorbed, assimilated

44:37

into today's leading men of all

44:40

ethnicities. Even the most

44:42

macho man mus now also have some

44:45

emotional awareness and vulnerability.

44:48

Yes, behind each posturing, chest

44:51

thumping bro in Magic Mike, there's

44:53

a surprisingly sensitive guy who

44:56

just wants to be loved. I'm not

44:58

my lifestyle. I'm not a in

45:00

my magic in my magic

45:02

mike right now talking to you. I'm not my goddamn

45:05

job. And that's not who, That's not what I That's

45:07

not what I do. That's I mean, this is

45:09

what I do, but it's not who I am. Sure

45:11

every once in a while somebody bemoans

45:14

the loss of the stoic leading man.

45:16

What have that happened to? Gary Cooper?

45:19

The strong, silent type that

45:22

was an American. He wasn't in touch with his

45:24

feelings. He just did what he had to do to what

45:26

they didn't know. Once they got Gary Cooper

45:28

in touch with his feelings that they wouldn't be able to shut

45:31

him up. But there's no

45:33

going back day, not

45:36

form, nothing. But you get a little confused

45:38

here. That was the movies there's

45:44

on you have.

45:59

I certainly hope you enjoyed this mobituary.

46:02

May I ask you to please rate and review the

46:04

podcast. You can also follow mobituaries

46:06

on Facebook and Instagram, and you

46:08

can follow me on Twitter at Morocca.

46:11

Listen to mobituaries on Amazon Music

46:14

or wherever you get your podcasts,

46:16

and might I suggest mobituaries

46:18

great lives worth reliving the New

46:20

York Times best selling book, now

46:22

available in paperback and audio

46:25

book. It includes plenty of stories

46:27

not in the podcast, and I gotta

46:29

say it's kind of a perfect stocking stuffer.

46:35

This episode of Mobituaries was

46:37

produced by Francisco Robina

46:39

and Aaron Shrank. Our team

46:42

of producers also includes Wilco, Martina

46:44

Scaceto, and me Morocca.

46:47

It was edited by Moral Walls and

46:49

engineered by Josh Hahn, with fact

46:51

checking by Naomi Barr. Our production

46:54

company is Neon hom Media. Our

46:57

archival producer is Jamie Benson.

46:59

Our theme music is written by Daniel

47:01

Hart. Indispensable

47:03

support from Craig Swaggler, Dustin

47:06

Gervais, Alan Peg, Reggie Basil

47:08

and everyone at CBS News Radio.

47:11

Special thanks to Andre Suarez,

47:14

Mattia, Santonio Bombal Lauda,

47:16

Isabel Cerna and Alberto

47:18

Robina, the Unsinkable

47:21

Aaron Shrink as our senior producer.

47:23

Executive producers for Mobituaries include

47:26

Steve Raises and Morocca. The

47:29

series is created by Yours Truly

47:32

and as always, undying gratitude

47:34

to Rand Morrison and John carp

47:37

for helping breathe life into

47:39

Mobituaries. Before

47:42

we go Hollywood also had its

47:44

female Latin lovers. The pioneering

47:47

and stunning Dolores del Rio

47:49

was Ramon Navarro's second cousin.

47:52

Del Rio was often called the female

47:54

Rudolf Valentino. She and

47:56

her contemporary Lupe Vells

47:59

paved the way for other Latin actresses

48:01

like Carmen Miranda and Maria Montez.

48:04

The storied history of those Latin

48:07

lovers is its own tail, deserving

48:09

its own future mobituary.

48:12

I think you like that very much. You

48:15

like that too, of course I'm willing to

48:17

everyone else. Is you want to

48:19

know what I think. I can't tell

48:21

what I said. It's okay, stan Leando, do you make it

48:24

sounds nothing? You don't know not to call

48:26

the battles? Yeah, you're not. Wish I couldn't

48:29

you know saying that in English